Hold My Hand
by gryffindork95
Summary: Albus Potter has changed this year.  Rose Weasley is keeping something from the others.  Valerie Thomas is in love.  Scorpius Malfoy is in love.  Lily Potter is playing the peace keeper.  Hugo Weasley needs advice.  James Potter just wants to have fun.
1. Simple Changes

Another summer has flashed by yet again and today, September 1st, Albus Potter found himself at King's Cross Station, running through the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Albus was different this year, and his friends could tell something had changed in him, but they couldn't tell what it was. Sure, he had grown a few inches over the summer making him nearly six feet tall, and he no longer looked so fragile and easy to beat but that wasn't it. Something else changed.

"Albus!" Rose, his cousin shouts and runs to hug him as he emerges into the magical station. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." He lies, returning the hug.

"About what you told me the other day, I'm here for you." She says looking into his emerald green eyes with her chocolate brown ones.

"Not now, Rose." He says with his temper rising ever so slightly. What if someone heard them? What would they think of him now?

Rose was the only one Albus trusted enough to tell what was different about him. She had kept his secret from everyone so far and he appreciated it very much, but he couldn't be sure someone wouldn't over hear them talking about it.

Not long after Albus comes through the barrier, the rest of his family appear as well.

"Lily! James!" Rose greets them both in turn. "Hello Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny."

"Hello Rose!" Her aunt says, hugging her with a warm smile.

As his family is talking to each other, Albus separates himself from the group in search for an empty compartment on the train. The crowd in the station was quite condensed the closer he got to the train and even though she was a Prefect, he wanted to shout and push the frightened and excited first years down.

When he finds a compartment and places his trunk on the shelf, he turns around to walk back to the group he left only moments ago but instead of walking out the compartment doo, he bumps into a friend of his.

"Albus!" the brunette with green eyes and a darker skin tone says breathlessly. "Have you seen Scorpius? Mum and Aunt Nicole are looking for him."

"Hello Valerie. No sorry I haven't seen him. Have you checked the Prefect's compartment? He usually goes in there right away doesn't he? Albus responds.

"Oh right! Thanks!" Valerie answers, running off the other way in search for the boy.

Albus returns to the group on the left hand side of the platform that has grown considerably in number. In addition to his brother, sister and parents, his Aunt Hermione, and Uncle Ron were there too along with their son and his cousin, Hugo. Also Valerie and her parents and the newly found Scorpius and his parents were now in the midst.

The teenagers say their goodbyes as soon as Rose comes back from wherever she went and head up to the compartment Albus claimed earlier. The seven of them squeeze into the tiny space but within ten minutes, the three of them who were Prefects left for the meeting held in the special compartment.

The three Prefects were of course, Albus, Rose and Scorpius. Each of them were Prefects for a different house though. Albus for Gryffindor, Rose for Ravenclaw and Scorpius for Slytherin.

"How was your summer, Scorp? I heard you went to Australia for a month?" Rose asks him, breaking the silence of their walk.

"It was pretty good, Val and her parents went with us." He answers. "How about yours? Did you do anything?"

"No not much. We tried to go camping but my dad didn't like that too much. Reminded him of being on the run, I think."

"Makes sense, that's too bad though. What about you Al?" Scorpius asks, looking at the black haired boy with a glint in his eyes.

"I didn't do much either." He responds, keeping his eyes ahead and his voice steady.

"Albus had a Muggle girlfriend." Rose tells him with a wink.

Albus shoots Rose a look and if they could kill, this one would've done it. "Rose!" Albus hissed.

"Oh really now?" the glint in his eyes were gone now and their blue became ice cold.

"Yes." Albus mumbled, hoping the other two would just be quiet and drop the subject.

"What was she like?" Scorpius persisted.

"Alright I guess... it didn't last long. She could tell I was different."

"That's too bad." He replied, his eyes no longer cold looking. There was definitely something strange about this boy.

Before Albus had the chance to think of what the strangeness was, the three friends arrived at the Prefect's compartment.

Each Prefect had to sit with their partner from their house; Albus sat down next to Angeli, the rather snotty other Gryffindor, Rose sat next to Stephen, a fellow Ravenclaw and Scorpius sat next to Marcy, the other Slytherin.

The head girl and boy, Clara and Damien, enter the compartment moments later and start their discussion. It was the same as last year. The sixth year prefects meet the head boy and girl and then they all go meet the new fifth year Prefect and explain the rules to them. (Prefects have a special bathroom, you cannot remove points from other Prefects, abuse your post and your badge is taken away from you, etc.) Once they all know the rules, they set up a schedule for when each partnership must patrol the hallways.

Looking down at the schedule, Rose notices that this year, Prefects are not partnered with someone from their own house, but with someone from a different house and of the same gender.

"Excuse me, Damien, but why are the pairings different for the sixth years this year?" Rose inquires.

"We felt like switching it up this year." He says with a smile.

Sure enough, Albus hadn't even noticed it was different this year. The schedule looks like this:

_Week 1: Rose Weasley, Marcy Mathers_

_Week 2: Albus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy _

_Week 3: Angeli Williams, Kayli Hart_

_Week 4: Stephen Paradise, Andrew Christopher_

_Repeat every four weeks._

None of the other Prefects had much of a problem with the schedule but for some reason, being alone at night with Scorpius made him uneasy. Even though they were friends, the Slytherin made him uncomfortable.

"What weeks do we start with?" asks a new fifth year.

"For the first month, two pairs from only the sixth year will be patrolling each week. This week will be Rose, Marcy, Albus, and Scorpius. Then the next week, the two remaining pairs will patrol then repeat for the next two weeks. After that, everything will be normal." Replies Clara.

"What about Quiddich practices though? If we patrol for a week, how we can get practices in?" asks, Kayli, the new Hufflepuff captain.

"That's where we come in" replies Clara, pointing at her and Damien. "You can ask one of us to take your shift for a night or two if absolutely necessary. Do not make it a habit."

"Oh good. I thought I was going to have to cancel practice for a week every month!" Kayli replies.

"So is everyone clear on what being a prefect requires and what you have to do?" Asks Damien.

"Yes." Everyone replied at different times, some nodding as well.

"Great! Off you go." He says and everyone filters out of the cramped compartment.

As the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and the Slytherin leave together, Scorpius smirks to himself.

"What are you smirking about?" Rose asks, nudging him in the ribs.

"Oh nothing. I think I'm going to sit with some friends from m house, okay?" he answers.

"Sure, have fun." Rose answers, walking on.

"See you tonight for patrolling. The blonde says to Albus with a wink. He then left, leaving Albus rooted to the spot with a weird feeling in his stomach.


	2. Keeping Secrets

Rose Weasley was a very smart girl. Nothing usually got passed her; she was too observant. So when she sensed that Albus was not beside her anymore, she was upset with herself for not noticing sooner.

She turns around and walks back to the spot they just left, finding Albus fixed to the spot.

"Come one." She says, taking his hand and leading him to a compartment no one ever used because of the broken seat. "Sit. Now talk."

"Rose, you know what's wrong. I don't need to talk." He says, trying to get back up and leave but his cousin pushed him back down.

"I only know some of it." she says. "Is it him?"

Albus nods his head, keeping his eyes to the floor. "I think so."

Rose was mixed with emotions; delight, fear, confusion and a slight hint of sadness. "Oh Al, come here." She says, opening her arms wide to hug him and he accepts the hug.

"Thanks." Her cousin says to her.

"Anytime. I'm here for you, okay?"

"okay."

Scorpius was on his way to the compartment that his Slytherin friends were seated in when he stopped and thought about what he just did.

He winked at Albus. Did that make the other boy uncomfortable? Surely Albus didn't know, right? Rose wouldn't have told him. She's too good at keeping secrets.

He began walking again and in no time at all, he had found the compartment he was looking for.

"Oh look who decided to show up." says the Slytherin Prefect, Marcy.

"shove off, Marce. I have other friends too, you know." He sneered back in response. Marcy and Scorpius never did get along since the day they had met, but his other friends were friends with her so he was forced to put up with her.

"whatever." She replies back, hatefully.

"Where were you earlier?" asks a boy named Drake Nott. "I didn't see you before we got on the train."

"I was with my parents." He answers matter of factly. "we were talking to my aunt, uncle and cousin."

"Oh, makes sense. I don't go near Gryffindors." Drake spat.

"That's good. They're too good for you anyways." Scorpius taunted making Drake boil up in rage.

"You little –" the boy named Drake shouted, raising his wand.

"I'll be going now." Scorpius cut across, leaving swiftly.

Rose and Albus left the broken compartment and joined Lily, James, Hugo, and Valerie. Albus had made a promise to himself that he would pretend that everything was fine and he was laughing and joking with his friends within moments.

Eventually the laughter died down and Albus had time to think about the summer. He had met Carissa one Saturday afternoon at the local grocery store when his mother sent him out to buy a missing ingredient that she needed for his father's birthday supper.

He was walking down the row where all the spices were when he bumped into her. He wasn't looking where he was going and she was busy stocking shelves to notice he was about to collide.

"I'm so sorry!" he said to her, helping her up.

"it's okay." She said.

Albus had to admit, she was very pretty. She had dark chestnut brown hair with very dark blue eyes that looked like the ocean and unlike any other Muggle girl Albus saw; she was not wearing any makeup.

"I'll be going now." He said nervously, walking away.

"Wait!" she cried, turning around to face him again. "What's your name?"

"Albus Potter." He said slightly self conscious of how strange his name would probably sound to her.

"I'm Clarissa Martin."

"Your accent... it's not English, is it?" he had noticed when she spoke her name, there was something different.

"No, I'm part French. I live in France during the school year. That's why you may not have seen me before, Albus."

"Brilliant." He said, quite fascinated by Carissa. "Listen, here's my phone number. Call me tonight or something."

Clarissa took the scrap of paper he had just handed her. "Thanks."

And that night as soon as she finished her shift and began walking home, she called him on her cellular.

From that night on, they hung out together whenever she wasn't working and they learned quite a bit about each other. Her mother was a biologist from France and every summer, she taught courses at one of the universities in England. Her father left her mother a few years back and that's why he wasn't there with them.

Albus had told her that his father was a police officer because he couldn't tell her that he was an Auror and that his mother didn't work. She really liked his family and they really liked her, but he couldn't tell her a thing about the magical world.

A couple weeks after they met, Carissa asked him if they could go out for dinner on her birthday, August 14th and that's just what they did. He took her to a nice restaurant of her choice and he paid for everything. The dinner went really well, but on the walk home, things fell apart.

"Happy birthday." He said to her and she took his hand, interlacing their fingers.

"Thanks so much Albus, this is the best birthday I've ever had." She answered, smiling up at him.

"It was the least I could so"

"Know what would make it better?" she asked him with a playful tone to her voice.

"What?" he was now nervous.

"If you were to kiss me."

Albus stopped walking. kiss her? Holding her hand was no big deal, but kiss her? He couldn't do it. his heart lied elsewhere.

"I... I can't." He said his voice small.

"why not?" she was hurt. He could hear it in her voice.

"I just can't do it." he felt horrible. It was her birthday, after all.

"But why?" she was crying now.

"It has nothing to do with you, it's –"

Albus had been pulled out of the flashback by the sudden stop of the train. They had arrived at the Hogsmeade station.

He and his friends/family leave the train and walk over to the carriages pulled by the invisible Threstals that only became visible if you have witnessed death. Thankfully, the Threstals remained invisible to him.

The short ride up to the castle was quite fun. James was entertaining the group with new jokes about the professors and students that took him all summer to think up.

The Great Hall looked as spectacular as ever, the ceiling was reflecting the sunset that was happening out doors, the whole room was decorated with each of the house's colours and all the returning students were laughing, talking, and greeting friends they didn't see on the train.

Albus, his two siblings, Hugo and Valerie go and sit at the Gryffindor table while Rose leaves for the Ravenclaw table. They all sit and wait for the sorting to begin.

Professor Longbottom enters the room with the battered old sorting hat and a stool in hand and everyone falls silent while the hat sings a song about the four houses.

After it's done, professor Longbottom leads the frightened first years to the front of the room and explains to them that they will sit on the stool, place the hat on their head and it will place the student.

"Atkinson, Emmaline!" Professor Longbottom says clearly and a small black haired girl walks up and places the hat on her head.

"Hufflepuff!" declares the hat after a minute of contemplating.

As Emmaline walks to the cheering Hufflepuff table, professor Longbottom calls the next student forward. "Allen, Peter."

"Slytherin!" shouts the hat as soon as it hits the brown haired boy's head.

The sorting continued for another half an hour before every student was sorted and then the Headmistress McGonagall stood up to make her "beginning of the year" speech.

"I hope you all had goo summer holidays. Now it's time for the feast!" she said. Well, it wasn't much of a speech. But the longer one was usually saved for after eating.

And with a wave of her hand, the plates on the tables were all filled and the feast began.


	3. Night Patrol

The food was spectacular as always and Albus was full in no time at all.

"Now that everyone is well fed, I have a few things to say before you all retreat to your common rooms." McGonagall says, rising to her feet to stand behind the podium that just materialized at the front of the hall. "As always, the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds for all students. Magic shall not be used in the corridors between classes. Also there is a list of items on the door of our caretaker Argus Filch's office. If any of you fail to obey these rules, points will be taken from your house accordingly."

She pauses, taking the time to look around the Great Hall at each student. "Will the Prefects please lead the first years up to their common room now?"

The scraping of the benches fills the Great Hall as everyone stands up and begins to filter out of the hall.

"Gryffindor first years, follow me!" Shouts Angeli over all the noise and Albus walks over to join her.

They walk in silence with the first years in tow until they reached the marble staircase in the entrance hall. "Something you should all know first is that the staircases move." Albus started. "They like to switch places every now and then so watch out for that." When he finished talking, they began walking again and all the little first years looked up in awe, hoping to catch one staircase on the move.

The long walk to the common room was quite silent except for the occasional whisper of a first year behind them giggling or gasping in awe. Soon enough, they found themselves at the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Everyone, this is the entrance to Gryffindor's common room. The password for now is Scarlet Roses. It will change quite often. You will be notified when it does." Angeli told the firsties and at the words _scarlet roses_, the portrait swung open revealing the cosy, warm, red, and gold Gryffindor common room.

Slowly, all of the eleven year olds enter the room with identical looks of happiness on their faces. "Just so you all know, the boys dormitories are up this staircase" Albus says, pointing to a staircase on the left. "And the girls is over there." He points to the right.

"If you have any questions, you can always ask us, or Damien." Angeli says, pointing to the boy in the corner talking to a confused fourth year. "He's head boy."

Albus could tell by the sound of Angeli's voice that she was pissed off and when all the first years drifted off and they were alone, he found out he was right. "You said all the things I was going to say." She said to him with angry fire flashing in her grey eyes." Next time, don't say anything. You sounded like an idiot explaining everything."

"Fine, when I get people asking me questions, I'll send them your way." He spat, angry that this girl was still a Prefect. He had been hoping they had replaced her, but was greatly disappointed.

"Good" she replied and sauntered off in the opposite direction.

With a sigh, Albus sank into the nearest arm chair. This was going to be a long year.

Scorpius had just finished showing the little first years around and wanted to relax for a while before he had to go find Albus and start their patrols for the night when he looked at his watch. He only had ten minutes before they had to be in the hallways. That was just enough time for him to walk all the way up to the Gryffindor tower and get the boy.

It was a fairly long walk from the dungeons to the seventh floor giving him plenty of time to think. He had quite a few questions he wanted to ask the emerald eyed boy and the needed to find the right way to ask them.

Even thought the two of them had been best friends since birth, Scorpius could still tell that Albus was never all that comfortable talking to him as he was with Rose but then again, Rose was family. Of course they would have a special bond.

He was thinking so hard that he didn't even notice he walked straight passed the hidden entrance to the Gryffindor common room until he ran in to a suit of armour at the end of the hall. Turning around and walking over to the portrait of the Fat Lady he rubbed his chest in an embarrassed fashion while he said the password (the sixth year prefects knew the password of their partners common room) and walked into the warm room.

Immediately he found Albus fully asleep in a chair next to the fire. _That git, _he thought. _How could he be sleeping?_

Deciding to bring out the inner Slytherin in him, Scorpius kicks Albus who was beginning to snore hard in the shin. "Hey!" Albus shouts at Scorpius, now fully awake. "What was that for?"

"You were sleeping. I had to wake you up." He replied not at all ashamed of kicking his friend.

"Well it hurt. I'm assuming that you're here because we're supposed to be patrolling." Albus said still glaring from being kicked.

"Oh stop being such a baby. You won't die from being kicked." Scorpius said, holding out his hand to help Albus up from the chair. "And yes, that's why I'm here. Now let's go before we get in trouble."

Eyeing the offered hand suspiciously, Albus took it and stood up, letting got immediately before walking out the portrait whole, with Scorpius following behind.

Albus was walking quite fast and at first it was quite hard for Scorpius to catch up but eventually he did.

"Why are you walking so fast?" he asked, breathing heavily from running to catch up.

"I didn't realize I was, sorry." Albus answered not even slightly out of breath.

"It's okay. So how do you like the new patrol groups?" Scorpius asks after a long moment of silence.

"A lot, I despise Angeli. She's full of herself, never does what she's told to do and she talks back to the Professors. Last year she showed up maybe twice for night patrols like these. Every other time I had to hope I never saw a professor. I even talked to McGonagall about it but apparently she thought Angeli deserved another chance." That was the most Albus had said to him all day and was quite surprised when he did.

"There must be a reason for it." Scorpius replied. "Maybe she was hoping someone could change here."

"Maybe, who knows? So what do you think about this?" Albus asks, throwing Scorpius' own question back at him.

"I quite like it. Marcy and I are friends and all but I don't think I would be able to handle her talking about who knows what and complaining about everything possible. I feel sorry for Rose. She has to put up with her." Scorpius replies as they turn down a corridor on the fifth floor.

Albus stops. "You see that?" he asks, pointing to a moving shadow of a foot down the corridor. The other boy follows his fingers to where they're pointing to and nods. "Two people snogging."

The two boys walk quietly over to the snogging couple standing in the doorway of a classroom.

"Snogging on the first day, James?" Scorpius inquires with a smirk.

Albus' brother breaks apart from the girl he was attached to and laughs. "What are you going to do about it? Albus wouldn't take points from his own house now would he?"

"No he probably wouldn't but I will gladly take some from you." Scorpius says. "So ten points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw for being out of bed."

In the Great Hall, ten rubies and ten sapphires shot back up into the upper half of their respective hourglasses.

"Now please go back to your common rooms." Says Albus to his scowling brother and girl who was thoroughly embarrassed.

The two Prefects began walking down the dark corridor, the only source of light coming from the torches on the walls.

"Al, I don't think you were being truthful earlier. What really happened with that Muggle?" Scorpius asks choosing his words carefully.

"Well... I really liked her, a lot actually. Her name was Carissa. It was her birthday and I took her out for dinner at the restaurant of her choice. After dinner, I was walking her back to her flat where she lived with her mum when she asked me to kiss her." Albus couldn't believe he was saying all this but he couldn't stop either. "I told her I couldn't and she ran away crying."

"Oh, I see. Do you have any idea why you couldn't? Or did you just not want to?" Scorpius asks, his heart beginning to beat faster.

"I have an idea. I'm not sure if that's why though. It's a little complicated I guess." Albus replies to the blonde's question, keeping his eyes down.

"You know you can tell me right?" He replies, careful not to pressure Albus. "I won't tell anyone, if that's what you're wondering."

"No, that isn't why I'm not telling you. I'm just not sure I want to tell you yet."

"Oh... okay." Scorpius felt awkward now. He wasn't sure what to say and was quite happy when Al spoke next.

"So are you interested in anyone?"

Scorpius was almost waiting for Albus to ask this and was quite happy when he did. "Yes, actually I am."

"Do you mind me asking who?" the Gryffindor asks, almost walking into a suit of armour. They were almost done patrolling the school. The dungeons were last before Albus left Scorpius to go back to his common room.

"No I don't. They are quite good looking, with soft dark hair and vivid eyes that sparkle in the light. I've been fancying them for quite a while now." They were at the door to the Slytherin common room now.

"Well, they sound... err... great." Albus says, unsure of who was being described.

"Oh I know they are. In fact, they're standing right in front of me." Without giving Albus any time to even register what Scorpius had just said, he leaned in and kissed him.

It was feather light and so gentle, so unlike Scorpius' personality. Albus, surprised by the gentleness and the kiss itself, gasps in surprise. Scorpius pulls away, "Black ice" he whispers and enters the common room entrance that opened before him, leaving Albus behind.


End file.
